30 for 30 - Phi Slamma Jamma

Your thoughts?

I thought it was good, but the search for Benny Anders seemed a little contrived for me. The highlights were great. Funny to see Jim Nantz as the young co-host of the Guy Lewis television show.

30 for 30 is starting to show its age. A lot of the footage (and interviews) bled into the previous 30 for 30 on the NC State Wolfpack 1983 championship team.

As an aside, watching some of the '80's game footage, I think that Gary Bender and Billy Packer might be one of the most underrated college basketball announcing pairs.

 

Billy Packer was good in the beginning, but he went too far.

Haven't seen that 30 for 30 but have been looking forward to it. Of course, on here the same contingent that argued the Fab Five wasn't deserving of a show will argue that these guys aren't either.

 

Saw it and enjoyed it very much. I was 7, 8, 9 years old when all that was going on, and just starting to get into college sports.

I knew the story of the 1983 national title game, but a lot of the other information was new to me.

The whole story of how "Phi Slama Jama" got its name reminds you of how powerful and influential big-city columnists, and newspapers in general, used to be.

Also, Guy V. seemed like a real dick.

But yes, between this one and the 30 for 30s on Valvano, Len Bias and the Big East, early-to-mid-80s college basketball has been pretty well covered.

 

Liked it overall but wasn't really happy with how it ended.

"Hey, we found Benny! Goodnight, everybody!"

No recap on what he's been up to since? No recap on what all of them have become since?

 

I felt like the producers thought the episode needed a hook, and the Benny Anders angle was it, but yeah, it fell flat. He said on camera, that his business was his business, so I guess there is your answer.

 

And you know there will be a separate one on the Georgetown Hoya Paranoia teams of the 1980s at some point too.

Agreed about the Anders aspect, Poin. It was fascinating actually finding out what happened to him, because there have been various stories over the years of writers trying to track him down. But the two team captains going on this quest because it was their sacred duty, ehhhh, bit much. Although it was still pretty cool when Benny actually saw them that first time.

But they are sort of becoming predictable, I think. The subject matter, that is. Few years ago I had a post that predicted future ones and I know I had on there the '85 Bears and a Cleveland native doing something on the city's sports struggles. Then again, even with the predictability, I enjoy most of the offerings. But a lot of that's probably due to fact I just like watching old highlights and these always offer that.

Was thinking about this:
Since the Bird-Magic game, what are the most famous/most memorable college basketball teams? In some order, I think it might be:
Phi Slama Jama
Fab Five
Larry Johnson UNLV teams
Laettner's title teams
Ewing's Hoyas
'83 NC State

I think it's interesting (or maybe just to me) that two of those teams never won a title, and two others are probably best known for the games they lost -- UNLV to Duke in '91 and Georgetown against Villanova in '85. Just think it's fun thinking about what lingers in our memories when it comes to sports.

 

I wrote a thing about Georgetown's title back when it was the anniversary and talked to some of the Houston people, so I'll be interested to check this one out. Even though they lost, Houston people almost all said they were happy to talk about a game that wasn't NC State.

 

The Florida teams that won back to back titles with Horford, Noah and Brewer (led by Billy Donovan) were pretty iconic.

 

Butler. Gotta do one on Butler, don't you?

 

They did an "SEC Storied" (the SEC Network equivalent of 30 for 30) on that team earlier this year.

SEC Storied: Repeat After Us - All-around team

 

Probably no coincidence that all of those teams were pre-Garnett going straight to the pros. College basketball has never been the same. Before you can even build iconic teams, guys jump to the pros. It is what it is, and they have to make a living or some such shit. But college and pro both suffer because many of the young stars don't make a name among fans in college first.

People argued against the Fab Five getting a 30 for 30? I am the exact same age as those guys -- entered college in 1991 -- and they changed the whole damn landscape. That was a great 30 for 30.

 

Between the NC State and Phi Slamma Jamma 30 for 30s, I don't ever want to hear an old timer say 'kids can't shoot free throws like they used to,' anymore.